Attacks on homeless up, activists say

[deadparrot]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tara Cole, who had been living on the streets of Nashville for more than three years, spent her last night alive sleeping on a boat ramp along the Cumberland River.

She was killed in the early hours of Aug. 11, when two unknown males pushed her into the river, according to witnesses. Other homeless people couldn't save her.

"She was one person, but it terrorized the whole homeless population," said Howard Allen, a homeless man who helped organize a nightly vigil for Cole.

Police said a body pulled from the river this week is likely Cole, and investigators interviewed people overnight Wednesday after surveillance videos helped them to identify suspects

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_re_us/homeless_attacked

[JackBeck]

1. Yet another group Freepers feel the need to take their frustrations

out on. Maybe if they got a job they'd have less time on their hands.

[Megahurtz]

2. Thanks to the Classic Bullshit Repuke attitude of

"people choose to be homeless".

The Neocons are responsible for the unleashed violence upon the homeless!

So what are they going to attack our homeless Vets too???

[kurth]

3. "Most of them are bums — plain and simple"

Last week, Austin's homeless population came under scrutiny when a golfer at the Butler Park Pitch & Putt said he was attacked after asking four men — who were not on course property — to leave the area. The injured man, Jose Angel Gamboa, suffered a broken nose and a detached retina. Two homeless men were arrested. The charges were dropped the next day, and no one else has been arrested in the incident. But the attack has stoked discontent about Austin's homeless. More than 120 comments were left on an Austin American-Statesman blog about the attack. Many expressed disgust with the homeless people in parks, in the woods, on the street corners, sidewalks and trails. "Most of them are bums — plain and simple," one reader wrote. "Austin definitely needs to do something about them."

Advocates for homeless people caught wind of the blog and saw it as a window into community sentiment. They read it, e-mailed it and talked about it for days. They saw it as a barometer of how well they are spreading their message about the root causes of homelessness: drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, physical disabilities, Austin's high cost of living and the $5.15 minimum wage. It was a test some advocates think they failed. "It has triggered a tremendous amount of discussion about the failure to educate people about the general homeless population," said Richard Troxell, president of the advocacy group House the Homeless. "We have not done our jobs." ...

"These people aren't homeless. Their homes are wherever they pass out. They are drunken bums who only care about getting their next drink. If they wanted anything else, they'd avail themselves of all the charities and shelters in town. Why don't we just build a big "shelter" with a big gate around it. They can have all the alcohol they (want) on one condition . . . there's no way out!" — Comment on Statesman.com
"It is not my duty to go to work each day so I can fund programs for those who simply don't want to have to answer to authority, stay sober, and shower every once in a while. There are plenty of programs for those who truly want off the streets." — Comment on Statesman.com ....

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/24homeless.html

[Anakin Skywalker]

8. Bush Texans

are so nice, aren't they?

[Monkeyman]

4. Yep more homeless veterans are showing up at hospitals after attack

Most put up a fight but to attack homeless people is just a lowlife

[ninkasi]

5. How incredibly sad

There is a growing trend toward brutal behavior in our country, and I believe that much of it can be traced to having such widespread corruption in government, and a president who delights in starting wars, and making threats to start more. Look at how long it took before the U.S. would approve any kind of cease-fire in Lebanon, even knowing that many innocent women and children were being killed and injured.

The president swaggers around and breaks any laws he pleases, without any accountability. The wealthy are showered with massive tax cuts, and ordinary Americans see their jobs going overseas. How many cities have now made it against the law to give out sandwiches to the homeless? Granted that many are suffering from mental health problems, but they should receive treatment, not be tossed out to be considered nothing but trash. Drug and alcohol abuses certainly accounts for some, but we dump them on the same trash heap as the mentally ill.

Some are VietNam vets, haunted by a useless war fought years ago, but unable to rid themselves of the nightmares of it. Some are now vets from the ongoing wars in the Middle East. We can spend our money on making America what it could be, if we didn't pour trillions into Halliburton's coffers, and borrow money that our grandchildren will have to repay, in order to give billions in tax breaks to the ones who don't need it. We should be better than this. Nobody should be without a home, and enough to eat, and medical help.

In Bush's America, though, clusters of embryonic stem cells are given more care and protection that living, breathing, already born people who need help from the rest of us. Many of the homeless are children. You know, the end result of the pregnancies that people like Falwell want to cry phony tears about, when he gives one of his speeches about the crime of destroying "innocent babies." I guess once they're here, it's too bad if they live on the streets with their parents. There are many reasons for people being homeless, and too many excuses for why we refuse to help them.

[AngryOldDem]

6. Often homeless victimize other homeless

I know many who have been severely beaten, almost to the point of death, by their fellow homeless. Their plight is getting more desperate by the day, yet most of mainstream society turns its head.

[ismnotwasm]

7. The homeless

Vets:

http://www.nchv.org/background.cfm

http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/facts/facts_question_1.asp
From
http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/facts/default.asp
And here's a good one
http://www.aoa.gov/prof/homelessness/homelessness.asp